( 243 ) 



The Anniversary Address to the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, de- 

 livered at Kelso, l&th September 1841. By FRANCIS DOUGLAS, 

 M.D., President. 



GENTLEMEN, 



Previous to resigning the honourable situation to which I was elevated 

 at the last Anniversary Meeting of the Club, I must discharge the 

 usual duties of your President, by giving an account of the transactions 

 of the Club, during the year which has now expired. 



The 10th anniversary meeting of the Club took place at Holy Island 

 on the 30th of September, when the following members attended ; Dr 

 Johnston, P. J. Selby, Esq., Dr Clarke, Captain Mitford, Mr Melrose, 

 and F. J. W. Collingwood, Esq. The Club were honoured with the 

 company of the Rev. J. Dixon Clarke, Messrs Hubback and Heath, 

 Barristers, and Mr Alexander Douglas, from Kelso. 



After breakfast, a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Club from 

 Chevalier Michelotti of Turin was read. It conveyed an offer of the Fossils 

 of Italy, belonging to the Tertiary period. It was a matter of regret 

 that this handsome offer could not be accepted, in consequence of one 

 of the fundamental rules of the Club forbidding the acquisition of any 

 property ; " but it was a flattering unction to their consequence and im- 

 portance to know, that their name and fame had spread beyond the 

 land of brown heather, and was cherished even- in the land of the vine 

 and the myrtle. The walk of the Club was directed towards the Coves, 

 where an hour or two was busily devoted in searching out and noting 

 the various marine animals which lurk beneath the flat stones in " Coves- 

 haven" The Coves are excavated in a very picturesque sandstone cliff, 

 of about 200 yards in length, and 35 feet in height : three of them are 

 of considerable size and interest ; their walls are covered with a dense 

 coat of the Polysiphonia stricta, which gives them the appearance of being 

 papered with a rich scarlet cloth. In former times, they were the re- 

 sort of numerous flocks of seals, which took, in those cool recesses, their 

 repose without fear of surprise ; but they have now forsaken their 

 ancient haunts, expelled by the too frequent visits of lovers of the pictur- 

 esque or of poaching, and by the revels of pleasure parties and Pick- 

 wickians. A few rarities were found in the haven, of which the follow- 

 ing may be specified. Of Algae, the only one worth notice is Zonaria 

 deusta, which spreads like a lichen over the rocks in great profusion. 

 The Millepora lichenoides t the Melobesite, and Corallina ojfidnaUs, oc- 

 curred in every pool ; and it was easy to demonstrate by the different 

 B. N. c. NO. ix. 8 



